WASHINGTON (AP) — Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions.

This is funny in an "god damn it" kind of way.

"We spent a week trying to turn a stray weather balloon in to a major international incident and then when we called them they didn't even pick up?!"

I can't imagine how frustrating it must be trying to conduct diplomacy with this kind of childish idiocy.

  • Wertheimer [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Hahaha, the "it just rang" quotation is from a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corporation still bitter about her call being screened in 2009.

    It took decades of Washington pushing to get Beijing to agree to the current system of military crisis communications, said David Sedney, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense who negotiated it.

    “And then once we had it in place, it was clear that they were very reluctant to use it in any substantive purpose,” Sedney said.

    "I bullied my classmate to add me as a friend on AOL Instant Messenger, and then they never signed on!"